By Ted Sandberg
A few people, mostly residents or former residents of a certain
Michigan town named Ann Arbor, are trying very hard to write off the
Lake Superior State University Lakers. For two straight years, the
Lakers have missed the NCAA Tournament, and the doom and gloom Laker
busters around the NCAA are preaching an end of the Laker Era.
Nothing would please the other CCHA powers more than not having to
deal with the Lakers or their legions of Blue and Gold clad followers
who choked I-75 South for the CCHA playoffs at the Joe. Those who
follow Laker hockey like a second religion have one thing to say to
the Wolverine, Spartan, Buckeye and Falcon pallbearers, "Not so fast."
From 1988-1995, the Lakers were the premier team in the nation, and to
that fact there can be no argument. Three National Titles, four
Finals appearances, including three in a row. Not bad for a school of
3,000 students in a town of slightly more than 18,000 residents at the
tip of the very top of Michigan's Eastern Upper Peninsula. Among the
players who passed through the Norris Center were Jim Dowd, Doug
Weight, Brian Rolston, Sandy Moger, Blaine Lacher, Darren Madelay,
Dean Keczmer, Mark Astley, and Clayton Beddoes -- all of whom have
played regularly at times, and some spectacularly, in the NHL.
The style they played under Frank Anzalone, and then Jeff Jackson, was
known in Laker circles as "The System." It featured an aggressive
three-man fore-check that rotated like a wheel in the zone, using all
five on-ice players, allowing certain defensemen to rotate into the
corners and have a winger rotate to the point. The three-deep attack
that pinned teams back into their own corners for minutes at a time
was known in these parts as "Good ‘Ole Laker Low-Play," cycling the
puck back into and around the corners and up to the high face-off
circle and then abruptly changing directions -- and catching the other
team's defensive players going the wrong way and providing two-on-zero
plays in the slot. A popular shirt in these days was one which
proclaimed the National Championships on the front, with the simple
phrase listed above: "The System Gets Results" and on the back said,
"The Little School that Could."
The Jeff Jackson Lakers rolled four lines, six defensemen, every game,
all game. The teams were always slow starters because it took the
freshmen a few months to get accustomed to the System, but the Lakers
always ran off 10-15 game winning streaks at the end of the year and
stormed into the NCAA Tourney very hot and playing a
search-and-destroy checking and hitting system that left them almost
unbeatable.
Well, Jeff Jackson is gone, and the program has struggled in recent
years. New Coach Scott Borek has worked very hard to get all his
players on the same page -- his page. But few upper-classmen
listened, having been recruited by Jackson and not respecting Borek or
his coaches. The trouble in the locker-room was intense, and factions
between the younger Borek players and the older Jackson players
resulted in confusion on the ice, selfish play, and oft times
difficult and angry practices. Sloppy passing and selfish plays
dominated games played by a program that once stood as the epitome of
Team Play.
But the dark days are over, the Soo faithfull tell us. The tide is
rolling back in Lake State's direction again now. The players are all
on the same page, the bad feelings are gone. Scott Borek has the
coaches he wants, the support of the community he has been looking
for, and the players are almost all his. Its a young team, but an
excited team. The program is poised for a come-back. The recruits
this year are all excellent players who will, we are told, concentrate
on team-work and hard defensive play. And they are all Borek's Boys.
The fans in Sault Ste. Marie, the LSSU students, the demanding alumni,
and the hockey world in general expect a great deal from Laker Hockey.
Poor Coach Borek was completely unprepared for the amount of scrutiny
the program got from all corners in his first two years, and he has
said so on many occasion. Last year was another .500 year, the second
in a row for LSSU -- a record that would be welcome in some schools,
but a disaster at LSSU. With all of the off-ice locker-room problems
and senior defections of the past two years, Borek should be noted for
having done a stunning job just getting the team to that level.
Now, however, Borek is comfortable, and it shows. He walks with ease
around the Able Arena and Norris Center. He talks lightly with
boosters and alumni about the upcoming year, and the big plans he has.
He is eating in public again -- something he gave up at times over
the past two years. He has his own hand-picked coaching staff. In
short, he no longer feels like an outsider in the Soo, or an
interloper or temporary figure on campus, or "Jackson's replacement."
The effect this will have on the team can only be imagined, as there
will be no more questions about who runs this team.
No longer will there be pack-meetings of upper-classmen chattering
bitterly about the coach behind his back. No longer are there snide
remarks about the "Eastern Coach who just doesn't understand U.P.
Hockey." If the last two years taught Coach Borek anything, its that
hockey is not just the top sport in this part of the country -- its
the only sport.
And he is getting some high-profile help this summer in his proclaimed
quest to bring back the glory. Elements of the team's young
leadership and recruits have gotten pep-talks from several
distinguished LSSU products, such as Brian Rolston and Doug Weight,
about the importance of team-work, discipline, and school pride. The
new goaltending coach is none other than Bruce Hoffert himself, the
goalie the Lakers rode to the National Title in 1988 and who was the
goaltending coach in the 1992 Championship and 1993 Finals runs.
Alums such as Rolston, Weight and Hoffert are telling anyone who will
listen about the great honor the current LSSU players should and must
feel about being a Laker, and about the awesome responsibility to play
your best every single night.
So why all the confidence and excitement when the rest of the country
seems to be predicting another "down" year at LSSU? Well, simply put,
the folks at LSSU think they know something nobody else knows. We are
told that the recruits are very good, and the goal-tending situation
is rock-solid. Scoring should be easier to come by, despite what some
detractors say is a lack of talent, because all the players will be
doing the same thing on the ice. The coaching staff is settled. Best
of all, we are told that the players have all made a commitement to
bring back the glory days to the Soo.
Lake Superior State has one of the finest facilities in the country,
some of the most loyal and dedicated followers this side of North
Dakota or Cornell, and a heritage of tradition and glory that is
crying out to be redeemed. A new batch of players, a secure coach,
and sharp demands from some of the school's most accomplished alumni
all point to one thing: A return to glory.
In 1988, the Lakers were thought to be fodder when they slipped almost
un-noticed into the NCAA Tourney. Too slow, not enough talent,
questionable coaching. Those Lakers won the National Title. The
1996-97 National Champions Fighting Sioux of North Dakota show that is
can still be done -- to come from nowhere and win it all. A team
picked to finish fifth in the conference refused to let outsiders
determine their fate. Can these Lakers repeat those stunning
victories? Its up to the players to decide. The only way to know is
on the day the puck is dropped. They are making all the right noise
this summer, but only time will tell -- and the season in only one
short month away.
GO TO THE COLUMNIST INDEX PAGE.